A Voyeur in the American Senate
The Unites States of America have become a real volcanic place. Besides of domestic violence due to fire guns, the weakness of the nation values Americans use as flag keeps eroding all spheres of the country. The sexual scandals along with massive shootings are making headlines. This time the Senate is in the sexual scandals’ hurricane. Republican senator Nicholas Kettle faces charges on sexual extortion. Kettle stood before a jury after a member of the Senate’s assistant program made statements on the senator’s sexual extortion.
Kettle made no declarations to the press nor any comment on if he will resign or not, but his lawyer appeared in front of the media to throw a light the accuser is a political rival, a strategy used by politicians’ defenders to distort the veracity of the suit. Although, according to state elections reports, the assistant that made the accusation competed as independent against Kettle in 2014, three years after the assumed events. According to press declarations, it seems Kettle was practicing voyeurism with a camera and during his “little adventures” he filmed the assistant and requested ‘to be paid” by the filming in more than one occasion.
After spending the weekend in a correction institution declared he was innocent, logically, in court. However, he must pay a 50.000-dollar bill. On the other hand, Senate is pulling some strings so Kettle quits his position. Senate’s president Dominick Ruggerio demanded once again the legislator’s resignation immediately. To Ruggerio, the scandal is a horrifying and disgusting shame.
Last January Rhode Island State Police broke into his house and found several electronic devices with SMS send to other people out of the state and intimate photos of his ex-girlfriend, declared lieutenant colonel Joseph Philbin. The investigation that brought him to the dock was in course during an entire month.
After the 2017 Weinstein case was made public, American society and particularly women have broken the silence and begun talking about violations and sexual abuses by their bosses. Most of these demands involve people with high economic and political power and influence. Senate has not been the exception. A long time ago Democrat legislator John Conyers, the eldest member of the Congress, retired because of sexual harassment charges. The same happened to Democrats Ruben Kihuen and Al Franken, and Republican Blake, the three of them with inappropriate behaviors accusations.
Apparently, those misconducts are caused by the great temptation legislators face, at least that is what Senate spokesman Greg Pare makes believe. According to him, the Senate includes 67 assistants, all of them hired following the senators’ recommendations, a fact that leaves an open window to the high probabilities that a Senate member goes beyond the limits with some of their assistants no matter the gender. Perhaps that is why Congress has undertaken the implementation of a series of measures trying to shake off sexual harassment from its halls. So far legislators have approved the begging of a compulsory training not only for them but also for the Congress staff in general.
Dominick Ruggerio also requested to the Senate’s legal adviser to carry out immediately a revision of the assistants’ program.
Kettle was selected for the first time as a Senate’s member in 2010 when he was 20 years old and has been three-time reelected. He is a member of the Senate’s Finance Committee and is one of the five Republicans in the 38-member American Senate.